A couple of days ago I was driving
on Cottage Street. This is not always a good idea in the middle of the summer
in Bar Harbor. And it is definitely not a good idea if you are in any kind of
hurry. I was behind a couple of cars that were just crawling along. It looked
to me like the lead car was looking for a parking space and had stopped to wait
on someone to vacate a space. I recognized a moment later that I was mistaken.
As I pulled out to pass them I realized they had stopped to let some
pedestrians - whom I had not seen - cross the street. I felt quite embarrassed
about my haste and impatience. There was no near miss or anything seriously
dangerous that happened, but I know that things can happen quickly, so I was thankful
for God’s grace in the situation. I didn’t get any grace from the driver I
passed, though. No doubt I deserved the words she sent my way.
The whole situation was another
reminder (I seem to need many such reminders) that not being in a hurry is a good thing. It seems to me
that more bad things happen in life when we’re in a hurry than when we are in a
relaxed “slow mode”. Most spiritual blessings do not come into our lives when
we are in a hurry for them. I don’t think God likes to be “on the clock” of our
schedules and demands, as if we could snap our fingers at Him and say, “I want
it now!” and have Him deliver. How presumptuous of us if we ever treat Him this
way! And yet we struggle often with the Scriptural truth and guidance directing
us to wait on the Lord. Which is best: to adjust my schedule and reference of
time to the Lord… or to expect the Lord to adjust to my schedule and my
reference of time?
Here’s a good prayer to start your
day: “Father, what do you have planned for me this day, and how may I serve
Your purposes between now and when I lay my head down to sleep again? Give me
grace to adjust my day to Your plans, to wait on You, and rejoice in what the
day brings forth. Teach me to wait on You today. Amen.”
At this moment in time I am waiting
for my first grandchild to be born. I am at an age when I am not old enough to
retire, but old enough to think about it. There’s a sense of waiting about
that. I am waiting for a few weeks of vacation. These and other matters in my
life I must constantly place in the Lord’s hands and say, “In Your time, Lord.”
I like the way Fanny Crosby put it in her hymn, “All the Way My Savior Leads
Me”. This prolific hymn writer is known for having lost her sight at six weeks
of age because of an improper medical treatment. As an adult one day she
received an answer from the Lord to a prayer expressing a desperate need for
five dollars. Such basic and simple things in life were common matters of
prayer for her. When that need was met in a way she could not have planned on,
she said, “I have no way of accounting for this, except to believe that God put
it into the heart of this good man to bring the money. My first thought was
that it was so wonderful the way the Lord leads me, I immediately wrote the
poem and Dr. Lowry set it to music.” The hymn was published in 1875, when she
was 55 years old:
“All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has
been my Guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know what’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.
All the
way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for
every trial, feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
and my soul athirst may be, gushing from the Rock before me, lo! a spring of
joy I see.
All the
way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is
promised in my Father’s house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings
its flight to realms of day, this my song through endless ages: Jesus led me
all the way.”
Everything Jesus does… He does well.
And everything Jesus does is always worth waiting for. When we wait on Him, we
are never disappointed. Amen.
Psalm 27:13-14
(KJV) 13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the
goodness of the LORD in the land
of the living. 14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 130:5-7 (NIV) 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the
morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 O
Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing
love and with him is full redemption.
Isaiah 8:17 (NIV) I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will
put my trust in him.
PRAYER: Father, give me grace to adjust my schedule
today to your voice and your way. I surrender my schedule to yours and look for
the goodness of your plan. In Jesus’
name, AMEN.”
Jesus
Christ is Lord!
Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment